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The Ādam Paradox Hypothesis 130
Table 12.1 — Genetic Signals of Expansion
The APH Interpretation on the post-70,000-year expansion
For the traditional demographic model, these expansions are explained as
simple consequence: more people → more innovation → more dispersal. But
this is circular. How could fragile bands of a few thousand suddenly sustain
exponential growth without collapsing under mistrust and conflict?
The Adam Paradox Hypothesis offers a stronger explanation. The trigger was
cognitive, not demographic. Around 70 ka, a threshold of symbolic thought
was crossed. With it came the capacity for scaled trust: ornaments, myths, and
rituals that allowed strangers to cooperate. This cognitive ignition transformed
small kin-based bands into expansive networks. Only then could populations
expand and maintain momentum across continents.
The demographic surge is real — but it is derivative. The cause was not
fertility, but symbolism.
The Fragility-to-Force Transition
This period, 70,000–40,000 years ago, represents one of the most dramatic
transitions in natural history. In less than 30,000 years, a species balanced on
the edge of extinction became the planet’s dominant predator, settler, and
artist.
To underscore the paradox: Neanderthals and Denisovans possessed brains as
large as or larger than ours, bodies adapted to their environments, and
millennia of survival skills. Yet they never scaled demography into planetary
dominance. They remained local, fragmented, vulnerable. Homo sapiens, by
contrast, surged outward, creating social nets of unprecedented resilience.
The APH interpretation reframes this as not merely a demographic accident
but as the unfolding of a symbolic ignition event — one that reshaped not only
numbers but the very architecture of society.